Standard tool rests, supplied by manufacturers, for a bench or pedestal grinder are designed for use with abrasive grinding wheels only and intended for rough grinding, sharpening tools, deburring, and smoothing sharp edges. After market tool rests are available, such as those made by Veritas Tools P/N (05M23.01), Grizzly Industrial P/N (G8987), Accu-Finish “Grind-R-Table” by Glendo Corporation P/N (001-696), and Tormek P/N (BGM-100). Such tool rests are generally designed for use with abrasive grinding wheels only and intended for rough grinding, sharpening tools, deburring, and smoothing sharp edges.
Currently available tool rests do not allow for the use of abrasive cutoff wheels. Attempting to use an abrasive cutoff wheel on a bench or pedestal grinder to make a cut of any type can be dangerous when using standard tool rests, e.g., those supplied from the manufacturer or current after-market tool rest suppliers. Attempting to use an abrasive cutoff wheel with the above-mentioned tool rests does not allow for any depth of cut without coming off the tool rest and into the rotating wheel, with loss of support to the object being cut. This can be dangerous, e.g., risking the object being cut to catch and be pulled into the rotating abrasive cutoff wheel, possibly along with the operators' fingers and/or hands, even risking shattering the abrasive cutoff wheel and ejecting broken wheel fragments at very high velocities.
Currently available after market tool rests generally require anchoring to the table top on which the bench or pedestal grinder is mounted and not to the grinder itself. Anchoring a grinder tool rest in this manner allows for possible movement between the tool rest and the grinder, which may cause variation in the setup and/or may result in a much higher error and/or scrap ratio when running production that requires repeatability.
Safety is also a potential problem when a grinder tool rest is anchored to the table top on which the bench or pedestal grinder is mounted. For example, the tool rest can move into or away from the abrasive grinding wheel, which can create a hazardous situation. When movement between the tool rest and the grinder during grinding operations creates a gap between the tool rest and the abrasive grinding wheel, the object being ground may catch and be pulled into the rotating grinding wheel, possibly along with the operator's fingers and/or hands. When movement between the tool rest and the grinder during grinding operations causes the tool rest to make contact with the rotating grinding wheel, the tool rest may catch and be pulled into the rotating grinding wheel, again possibly along with the operator's fingers and/or hands.
When an abrasive grinding wheel wears or otherwise needs to be changed, or a different grit or type of wheel is required, currently available tool rests require that the setup or tool rest position be unfastened and moved out of the way in order to remove and install the new abrasive grinding wheel. This requires the operator to “re-setup” the current operation, which may greatly increase setup time and setup costs, and/or concurrently slow down production time and increase production costs.
Accordingly, tool rests that enhance safety and/or facilitate setup, change-out, and/or other production steps would be useful.